The press is the pointing finger on the path of progress.
Victor Hugo
Mexican artist Pablo de Laborde Lascaris presents an sculptural installations turned an anti-monument to commemorate all the journalists and media workers who have been murdered because of their work. At the same time, it condemns the acts of censorship that continue to replicate and increase in our country, the most dangerous in the world to practice this profession.
Laborde Lascaris’ practice questions the limits of sculpture through the analysis of the performative actions that arise from them. His formal approach challenges the functionality of the objects that we use on a daily basis through the reinterpretation and reappropriation of their forms, scales and materials. The deliberate act of depriving an element of its real purpose questions the traditional qualities of sculpture by destabilizing them within their historical contexts.
The artist builds a metaphor between the voice of the journalists and the sound of the bells. Each of the 265 ceramic bells symbolically represents an individual who has been killed or censored for communicating. The clappers that complement the composition are made of brass and lead, the materials used in the industrial manufacture of bullets and ammunition.
According to the Journalists without Borders organization, 937 reporters have been murdered, deliberately for their profession or in the performance of their duties without being specific targets, from 2011 to 2020 around the world. [1] In Mexico, the figure rises to 140 murders between 2000 and 2021 according to the independent organization Article 19. [2]
[1] Periodistas sin fronteras Julio, 2021
[2] Artículo 19 Julio, 2021
Curator: Alberto Ríos de la Rosa
Curatorial assistants: Natalia Gómez and Carmen Puig
